Last ones off the boat

[FrankNBrew]

My last cruise was over 20 years ago, with a different wife, and a different life. All memories of that cruise have been erased (other than beautiful Key West, that terrible Calica port, and a HUGE onboard bill at the end). Anyway, we've decided to take a cruise in February. I've done lots of planning so far to get from home to boarding the ship. It's the return trip I'm now thinking about. Our ship returns to Galveston on a Sunday morning 6:30 AM. Our flight leaves Bush airport at 3:30 PM. I see lots and lots of posts about getting off the ship as early as possible. Why the hurry? I'm thinking we might stay on the ship until they kick us off. Enjoy breakfast and avoid the crowds rushing to leave. Then grab a shuttle to the airport. Or an Uber.  When do they generally kick us off? Are the crowds huge at certain times? How late can we eat breakfast? Are there any issues with acquiring transportation you can foresee with this plan?  Should we join the herd of cattle for whatever reason? 

 

Thanks!

[1025cruise]

Expect to be off the ship by 10am the latest. Breakfast will be served early, and shut down early. In reality, there really won't be anything to do on the ship except wait to leave.

[asalligo]

I have been considering the same as on my previous seven cruises I have always needed to be off early, but this cruise I will have a 2pm flight. The ship often starts boarding at 11 or shortly thereafter, so I suspect 10:30 is about as late as you can stay on the ship. You get booted from your room at 8am. 

Edited November 28, 2018 by asalligo

[gerif]

You need to be out of your cabin by 8. Breakfast is served earlier than usual. After that, there is nothing to do on the ship. There are only a few areas where you can sit and wait. They really just want you gone. Remember when you wanted to board as early as possible on the first day? Well now others want to. Why would you want to inconvenience others to track you down and tell you to leave?

[asalligo]

2 minutes ago, gerif said:

 Why would you want to inconvenience others to track you down and tell you to leave?

 

I personally do not want to inconvenience anyone or delay the next cruises boarding. I just want to wait for the large crowd to debark before I do, as I also do not want to slow down anyone who has an earlier flight than me. If I could find a sitting place in which I could see the line getting off the ship, I would just sit there until the line was small and then debark. 

[Clarea]

23 minutes ago, FrankNBrew said:

My last cruise was over 20 years ago, with a different wife, and a different life. All memories of that cruise have been erased (other than beautiful Key West, that terrible Calica port, and a HUGE onboard bill at the end). Anyway, we've decided to take a cruise in February. I've done lots of planning so far to get from home to boarding the ship. It's the return trip I'm now thinking about. Our ship returns to Galveston on a Sunday morning 6:30 AM. Our flight leaves Bush airport at 3:30 PM. I see lots and lots of posts about getting off the ship as early as possible. Why the hurry? I'm thinking we might stay on the ship until they kick us off. Enjoy breakfast and avoid the crowds rushing to leave. Then grab a shuttle to the airport. Or an Uber.  When do they generally kick us off? Are the crowds huge at certain times? How late can we eat breakfast? Are there any issues with acquiring transportation you can foresee with this plan?  Should we join the herd of cattle for whatever reason? 

 

Thanks!

 

The last time we stayed on the ship as long as possible, someone took one of our bags by mistake.  Now we always get off the ship ASAP no matter the time of our flight.  Many things can happen to slow/delay the disembarkation process, and I think it's best to get away as early as possible.

[bouhunter]

Unfortunately it's just not a fun place to hang around.  Everything is shut down, there's nothing to do but maybe find a seat and read a book or surf the internet on your phone.  An airport is a better place to do that and kill time

 

And Bob makes a good point - the longer you sit on the ship, the longer your luggage is out there where nothing good can happen to it.....

Edited November 28, 2018 by bouhunter

[twangster]

If I have to be awake and out of the cabin I figure I might as well get off the ship, get through the customs mess and be on my way.  Sitting in a lounge waiting for the inevitable seems like a waste of time to me.  

[asalligo]

8 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

Unfortunately it's just not a fun place to hang around.  Everything is shut down, there's nothing to do but maybe find a seat and read a book or surf the internet on your phone.  An airport is a better place to do that and kill time

 

 

The problem with this is that FLL does not allow guests to move beyond security until 2 hours before your flight(At least for Delta, which is who I am flying) and there is nothing outside security. I am thinking I will find something to do between ship and flight. 

Edited November 28, 2018 by asalligo

[BillOh]

I'll be the contrary one, being we usually cruise in a time when its early spring and sometimes still snow around home,  If we have a later flight, I'll go to guest Services and ask for the last departure time.  Occasionally that will be around 10am,  After breakfast we will sit by the pool and people watch, listening to the calls for the departure times.   That maybe one hour to 90 minutes more on the ship, doesn't delay anyone else. Better that spending that time at an airport. 

[Goofyfanatic]

10 minutes ago, asalligo said:

 

The problem with this is that FLL does not allow guests to move beyond security until 2 hours before your flight(At least for Delta, which is who I am flying) and there is nothing outside security. I am thinking I will find something to do between ship and flight. 

Wow I have never heard of that before. We flew Southwest out of FLL and were at the gate 3 hours prior to the flight because we are ones that like to get off of the boat so the workers can do their thing and let the next group start their vacations. Plus it is always sad that last morning. The quicker we can get off the quicker we can move on.

[Biker19]

23 minutes ago, asalligo said:

 

The problem with this is that FLL does not allow guests to move beyond security until 2 hours before your flight(At least for Delta, which is who I am flying) and there is nothing outside security.

Not that there's much on the other side of security either, realize that that might be Delta only policy - I don't believe there's any such restriction in any of the other terminals plus in a couple of years, all the terminals will be linked via walkways on the secure side so you can walk between terminals (which means you can also walk through any security check point). 

[twangster]

30 minutes ago, asalligo said:

 

The problem with this is that FLL does not allow guests to move beyond security until 2 hours before your flight(At least for Delta, which is who I am flying) and there is nothing outside security. I am thinking I will find something to do between ship and flight. 

 

I routinely go through FLL security flying on Delta several hours before my flight.  I sat in the SkyClub for 6 hours working remotely just a week ago.  A month before that the Skyclub in FLL was closed for renovations and I sat in the terminal for 5 hours.  I was hoping to fly standby but it didn't happen so I waited it out.  

 

Over the past few years I've routinely got off using self-assist and through FLL security before 8am then waited several hours in terminal 2 flying Delta.  

 

Who ever told you you can't go through security until 2 hours before your Delta flight was lying to you.  

 

Also, while Southwest is very strict on the bag checkin in times (4 hours maximum), I've checked bags with Delta at 8am for a 4pm or 5pm flight several times.  

 

I'm cheap and choose lousy flight times to save money.  If the 10-11am flights are too costly I'll sit in the terminal all day to save a few hundred bucks.

[bouhunter]

50 minutes ago, asalligo said:

 

The problem with this is that FLL does not allow guests to move beyond security until 2 hours before your flight(At least for Delta, which is who I am flying)

 

That just doesn't sound right.

[Clarea]

20 minutes ago, bouhunter said:

 

That just doesn't sound right.

 

It's happened to us at FLL once, flying Southwest.  They said they have limited space at the gates.

[asalligo]

28 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

I routinely go through FLL security flying on Delta several hours before my flight.  I sat in the SkyClub for 6 hours working remotely just a week ago.  A month before that the Skyclub in FLL was closed for renovations and I sat in the terminal for 5 hours.  I was hoping to fly standby but it didn't happen so I waited it out.  

 

Over the past few years I've routinely got off using self-assist and through FLL security before 8am then waited several hours in terminal 2 flying Delta.  

 

Who ever told you you can't go through security until 2 hours before your Delta flight was lying to you.  

 

Also, while Southwest is very strict on the bag checkin in times (4 hours maximum), I've checked bags with Delta at 8am for a 4pm or 5pm flight several times.  

 

I'm cheap and choose lousy flight times to save money.  If the 10-11am flights are too costly I'll sit in the terminal all day to save a few hundred bucks.

This is good to hear, thanks. I found that info in two locations, a thread on Cruise Critic 

and Tripadvisor in which separate people made the same complaint. 

 

[FrankNBrew]

3 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

Expect to be off the ship by 10am the latest. Breakfast will be served early, and shut down early. In reality, there really won't be anything to do on the ship except wait to leave.

That's about what I was expecting. Thanks!

 

3 hours ago, gerif said:

You need to be out of your cabin by 8. Breakfast is served earlier than usual. After that, there is nothing to do on the ship. There are only a few areas where you can sit and wait. They really just want you gone. Remember when you wanted to board as early as possible on the first day? Well now others want to. Why would you want to inconvenience others to track you down and tell you to leave?

Breakfast closing at 8:00 AM is not what I was expecting. I was hoping to stretch that to about 9:30. I have no desire to board early either. I always wait to board a plane until the line is gone. I plan to do the same for the ship. If our room isn't ready until 1:00 I don't want to be on board before then. I want to go straight to our room, pour a glass of wine and relax on our balcony. We have the next 6 full days to spend with our almost 4,000 friends. 

[cb at sea]

The last morning is NOT what you've come to expect all week.  They do want you OFF the ship ASAP.  I would look for an earlier flight.

[Clarea]

6 minutes ago, FrankNBrew said:

That's about what I was expecting. Thanks!

 

Breakfast closing at 8:00 AM is not what I was expecting. I was hoping to stretch that to about 9:30.  ...

 

The last morning is not a relaxing time. You may find breakfast available to 8:30am at the latest, but 8am is what I most often see.  Better to get off and have a less hectic time at the airport.

 

[FrankNBrew]

3 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

The last morning is NOT what you've come to expect all week.  They do want you OFF the ship ASAP.  I would look for an earlier flight.

 

I'm very happy with the 3:30 flight. We can have a late lunch/early dinner at the airport and get home at a reasonable time. The whole point is to not finish off a vacation rushing to do anything. 

[cb at sea]

Well, then, that's fine!  As long as you can find things to do, it's all good!  Have a great trip!

[HBE4]

3 hours ago, FrankNBrew said:

 Our ship returns to Galveston on a Sunday morning 6:30 AM. Our flight leaves Bush airport at 3:30 PM. I see lots and lots of posts about getting off the ship as early as possible. Why the hurry? I'm thinking we might stay on the ship until they kick us off.

 

We are generally are linger-as-long-as-possible kind of people too. Just off the Liberty a few weeks ago and they asked everyone off by 10 am. We had a 6:30 pm flight from Hobby so we lingered around Galveston for a bit. Head over to the Gulf Coast Departure Port topics for more info on things to do in Galveston.

 

Also, I've read some stories about winter fog in Galveston delaying Liberty's return by several hours. You might not have as much free time as you think.

[KelJ]

2 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

It's happened to us at FLL once, flying Southwest.  They said they have limited space at the gates.

This happened to us at FLL years ago also.  I don't remember what airline we flew or what our flight time was, but we got to the airport at 9:30 a.m. and hung out in a lounge (big room with lots of furniture and nothing else) with our luggage for quite a while because the earliest we could check in was three hours before our flight.

[fla33023]

Just off Indy and departure day offerings were Windjammer 5:30-8:30, Cafe Promenade 5:30-9:00 and Dining Room 7-8:30.

[hellsop]

4 hours ago, asalligo said:

 

I personally do not want to inconvenience anyone or delay the next cruises boarding. I just want to wait for the large crowd to debark before I do, as I also do not want to slow down anyone who has an earlier flight than me. If I could find a sitting place in which I could see the line getting off the ship, I would just sit there until the line was small and then debark. 

The line will be gone by 9:00 or 9:30 after most cruises.